Fifth World Conference on Transformative Education (WCTE)
Coquimbo, Chile
October 7-9, 2026
Keynote Speakers
The planners for the 5th WCTE are pleased to introduce the keynote speakers
for each day of the conference.
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Dr. Carlos Calvo esta uno investigador en temas sobre educación, teoría del caos, complejidad, etnoeducación. A lo largo de mi vida como docente e investigador he indagado en torno a por qué fluimos en el aprendizaje informal y se nos dificulta tanto el aprendizaje escolarizado. Más allá de las razones obvias: complejidad del tema, nivel de abstracción, vocabulario especializado, entre otras, existe una nebulosa que oculta el hecho comprobable a diario de que desde pequeños/as aprendemos con entusiasmo gracias a una curiosidad insaciable. Las limitaciones en la mayoría de los casos son aprendidas, especialmente en la escuela. Esto me ha llevado a distinguir categóricamente entre educación, que es creación, y escolarización, que es repetición. Estas ideas me guiaron en mi trabajo como Convencional Constituyente (2021-2022) para crear una nueva Constitución para Chile y proponerle a las/os ciudadanas/as una Propuesta de Esperanza en una sociedad chilena ética y lúdica. Licenciado y Profesor de Filosofía (Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile). Master of Arts en Educación y en Antropologíay, Ph. D. en Educación (Stanford University, EE.UU). Investigador posdoctoral (Stanford University y Universidad de Lovaina, Bélgica). Profesor e investigador en la Universidad de La Serena, Universidad Católina del Norte y Universidad Abierta de Recoleta (Chile). Especialista en Educación de Adultos (CREFAL, México). Profesor invitado y conferencista en diversas universidades. Director del programa de Doctorado en Educación, mención en Mediación Pedagógica y coordinador del Programa de Intercambio de Maestros, PRIMA, programa educativo de autogestión para realizar pasantías de estudio dirigido a docentes y estudiantes en el extranjero (Universidad de La Serena).
Thursday, October 8, 2026
Dr. Edmund Folefac is a medical oncologist, educator, and bioethicist, serving as Associate Professor of Medicine and Clinical Bioethics at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, where he also co-directs the Hematology and Oncology Fellowship Training Program. Dr. Folefac was born in Southern Cameroons, where he completed is early education followed by medical training at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, then specialization in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital/ Brigham and Women Northshore l, and fellowship training in hematology/oncology /Geriatrics at Boston University where he also completed a Master of Science in clinical investigation. He joined the University of Vermont where he worked for three years before joining his current institution in 2017 where he also completed a fellowship in clinical bioethics- a path that has shaped both his clinical excellence and his global perspective. In addition to his dedication to medical education and mentoring, his research focuses on cancer clinical trials. Dr. Folefac has trained hundreds of physicians and future leaders in medicine. Yet, beyond his academic achievements, he is a passionate advocate for justice in healthcare—working across the United States and Africa to expand access to life-saving care, including through his work with the PLO Lumumba Foundation through which he advices several governments and organizations on optimizing cancer care and decreasing the cancer burden in Africa. In the USA he works with and advises several minority groups on cancer prevention and accessing cancer care in the USA. Guided by the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who reminded us that injustice in healthcare is among the most inhumane, Dr. Folefac challenges us to rethink not only how we deliver care, but how we educate—believing that transformative education is the key to achieving equity, dignity, and health for all.